Editorial: Hits and Misses

Published: 14 September 2012 08:14 PM

Updated: 14 September 2012 08:14 PM

HITS

Fly your flags, schools, and take a bow

It’s rare that a school sees its name in national lights for all the right reasons — achievement, hard work, excellence, dedication — the hallmarks of four North Texas campuses that earned the coveted distinction of being named Blue Ribbon Schools by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. The schools — Blue Ridge High School in northeast Collin County; Bray Elementary School in Cedar Hill ISD; Judge Barefoot Sanders Law Magnet in Dallas ISD; and St. Thomas Aquinas School of the Dallas Catholic Diocese — are among 269 that will be honored in Washington this fall. They will receive blue flags to fly above their campuses. Fly ’em proudly, boys and girls, teachers and principals.

Emanuel didn’t let this good crisis go to waste

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has picked a fight with striking Chicago schoolteachers that goes far beyond the borders of his town. In fact, it could benefit parents and students in Dallas. This week, the Democrat pushed teachers to accept that a fairly significant portion of their evaluations be based on student performance. The two sides were on the verge of a framework Friday. However the details get worked out, Emanuel was right to keep pressing. School reformers around the country have been pushing to use data to determine the effectiveness of teachers. It’s students who stand to gain.

Open, honest communication brings La Bajada solution

It’s a relief that the Dallas City Council, developers and La Bajada residents achieved a last-minute compromise Wednesday making it tougher for real estate speculators to consume the modest West Dallas neighborhood, while still allowing for shops and apartments to be built on the edge of the community. They narrowly averted the nuclear option — a zoning impasse that would have left all sides walking away with nothing. It’s unfortunate that this balanced outcome almost didn’t happen because rumors, secret meetings and half-truths split the neighborhood, made residents rightly question the developers’ intentions and pushed the council within an eyelash of undermining its own planning system. There is a better way — and it is called open, honest and respectful communication.

The harsh reality of keeping taxes steady

Lawmakers in Austin often avoid looking reality in the face, like the true cost of expanding and maintaining the state’s roads and bridges. State Sen. Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, dished out a dose of truth this week on the state’s borrowing binge for highway construction, all in the name of avoiding the first increase in the gas tax since 1991. “We’ve amassed a ton of bond debt so we can say we haven’t raised taxes,” Eltife said, according to the Longview News-Journal. The message is not what GOP leaders want to hear, but they need to quit burying the truth under a pile of IOUs.

One-stop shop for veterans

Salute to the University of Texas at Dallas for recognizing and serving a portion of the student body to which the nation owes a great debt: post-9/11 military veterans. UTD dedicated its new Veterans Services Center on Friday, offering a one-stop shop for services ranging from financial aid to academic counseling. It’s also a place to socialize for students who have sacrificed and endured stresses that other students could never imagine. With hundreds of veterans on campus, the center makes sense in encouraging the academic success of students who have shown commitment and discipline in uniform.

Remembering Gary Kirkpatrick, a cop’s cop

Like coaches and quarterbacks, police chiefs draw much credit when a city’s crime rate falls dramatically, as Dallas’ has over the past few years. But let’s never forget the rank-and-file cops who do the actual arresting and investigating. Gary Kirkpatrick (right), who spent 20 of his 38 years as a Dallas cop in the homicide unit, was a perfect example. Kirkpatrick, who died last week of brain cancer diagnosed shortly after he retired in January 2010, followed his father, L.B. Kirkpatrick (left), and other relatives into police service and proved himself a diligent, persistent investigator and supervisor. He even earned the admiration and respect of more than a few police reporters who relied on him for information. He will be missed.

MISSES

What about picking on someone your own size?

Vicki Reed is certainly afforded her right to due process, but the Dallas math teacher had better soon present a plausible reason why she reportedly segregated Julius Hill from his Greiner Middle School classmates on a European trip this summer. According to fellow travelers, Reed left the trip’s only black student behind at a parade, forced the 13-year-old to sit alone during meals and regularly berated him. DISD is investigating, so perhaps Reed will rebut the story. So far, she’s simply said he was rude; others say they never saw that. What’s more, Reed took the students to a nude beach. Inquiring minds want to know, Ms. Reed: What were you thinking? Without a good answer, Superintendent Mike Miles should throw the book at her.

Trigger-happy Garland officer needs a new line of work

Garland police Officer Patrick Tuter feared for his life when he shot at a fleeing suspect, his attorney says. Our question: Did his fear abate after the first 10 shots? After he emptied his first clip? After he reloaded and kept shooting? 20 rounds? 30? 40? Tuter’s attorney does not dispute the police account that Tuter fired 41 shots at suspect Michael Vincent Allen after a high-speed chase Aug. 31 that crossed into Mesquite. Police also “updated” their account of the end of the chase. Initially, they had said Allen U-turned his pickup into Tuter’s squad car; in fact, Tuter rammed Allen. Allen appears to be no angel — he had successfully run from police only days before and had past arrests — which matters not at all if the new police accounts are accurate. If Tuter avoids jail, it’s time to consider another line of work.

American pilots throw good money after bad in futile strike threat

The Allied Pilots Association board is compounding one bad decision with another, even as the second one lacks legal authority. Pilots for bankrupt American Airlines threw away any leverage they might have had by rejecting the company’s last, best offer last month. That left American free, with a judge’s approval, to toss its union contract and impose cost-cutting measures more severe than it had offered. Now the pilots’ union wants its members to authorize a strike they cannot enact before going through the long and complicated requirements of the Railway Labor Act. Eight other unions at American saw the writing on the wall and took American's last, best offers. It would be a shame if that sacrifice were for nothing.

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